Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor

It's a silly shame that this wonderful book is out-of-print when the Code Mania would sell it like hotcakes. It is, without a competitor, the best all-around book on Mary Magdalene. Buy Karen L. King's translation of the Gospel of Mary if you want an intense but engaging lesson in theology, Jane Schaberg's *The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene* if you want a solid feminist critique, or Margaret Starbird's *The Woman with the Alabaster Jar* if you are looking for New Age speculation, but it's Haskins who pulls it all together. Tracing the idea of Mary Magdalene from the Biblical (and "heretical") sources to present-day manifestations in film and novel, she provides a survey of the changing role of women and sexuality in Occidental culture, generously illustrated with depictions of the Magdalene. She shows how the "shamed prostitute" myth got its start, examines the claims of connection between Mary and France, and provides a very funny account of the Church supported habit of "relic snatching" that accounts for Mary's "relics" moving here and there from this monastery to that church. All in all, it is a heavy but interesting read, with no polemic axe to grind. Start here.

This is THE MOST AMAZING book on Mary Magdalen. Susan Haskins goes through the image/personna of the magdalen from the Biblical roots to our pop-culture. The primary references are excellent, it is well put together, it is PERFECT!

Haskins does an excellent job in bringing us virtually every relevant piece of useful information about Mary Magdalene. It's all discussed here -- Mary Magdalene in Scripture, non-canonical Christian literature, artwork, history, myths, and legends. An important work about an important historical and spiritual figure.

This is truly a brilliant dedication and devotion from Susan Haskins to the modern surfacing of Mary Magdalene. I believe that she has made an inspirational and scholarly entry into a field which is conspicously absent of female theologians. With this book as reference, the interested reader can find numerous starting points into the dark and tangled woods which, for two thousand years, have been blocking the paths leading to Mary Magdalene and a balanced spirituality.

It's tempting to call Susan Haskins' book the most definitive work about Mary Magdalene currently on the market. So much information is presented that it takes awhile for the casual reader to wade through all of the details. The density of the information provided could place it in a "reference" category, but there is definitely enough serious research and intriguing conclusions to make reading it from cover to cover a worthwhile endeavor.